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Phone
206-356-9852
Email
rory@electroryosullivan.com
Town where you live
Seattle
Experience (300 characters max)
Founding Partner of Washington Employment Benefits Advocates, prior positions include Administrative Law Judge, Director of UW Student Legal Services, Managing Attorney for the Housing Justice Project, Adjunct Professor at UW and SU Law Schools, Pro Tem Judge at Seattle Municipal Court
I have experience developing progressive policies for Seattle and then defending those policies when they are challenged in court. I helped created Seattle's first-in-the-nation democracy voucher program and then I worked with the city to defend it when it was challenged. I also partnered with the city council to pass tenant protections. When those protections were challenged by the landlord lobby, I was asked to write an Amicus Brief to the Washington State Supreme Court, and we won. Those tenant protections are still on the books.
I also have significant management experience. I have managed teams of attorneys as the managing attorney of the Housing Justice Project and in my current position as a founding partner of Washington Employment Benefits Advocates. I have the necessary experience to successfully lead the city attorney's office.
First, we need to address the backlog of drunk driving and domestic violence cases. Under our previous city attorney, ost drunk driving cases were filed in less than a week. Those cases are now languishing for months and sometimes more than a year.
Second, we need an evidence based approached to crimes of poverty. Often, individual who are charged with theft or trespass have underlying substance abuse or mental health issues. We need to ensure that we are providing the treatment necessary for those individual to disengage from the criminal legal system.
Third, we need to combat wage theft. The Seattle City Attorney's Office should be supporting our Office of Labor Standards so that we can hold employers accountable when they try to take advantage of workers.
I will work with our municipal court, public health officials, and services providers to ensure that we have a functional coordinated system for responding to crimes of poverty. This includes working with diversion case management programs like LEAD and by expanding our therapeutic courts.
Drunk driving cases, domestic violence cases, and addressing wage theft will requiring re prioritizing how cases our staffed within the office. For wage theft specifically, I will have a city attorney partnering with our Office of Labor Standards to assist with investigations.
As a member of the Washington State Bar Association I have a sworn duty to uphold the United States Constitution and the Washington State Constitution. As an elected official, I will also have a duty to the voters of Seattle. When federal, state, or local laws come into conflict, I will first look to guidance from our state and federal constitutions. I will then look to the values expressed by Seattle voters.
The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution guarantee due process to all people in the United States, not just citizens. I will make it a priority to ensure that the city attorney's office is actively upholding our constitutional guarantees.
Our federal government is no longer investigating cases regarding discrimination against members of the trans community. I will look for opportunities for the city attorney's office to step in and file cases to protect members of the trans community from discrimination, or other individuals who are being treated unfairly by our federal government.
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